In recent years, for cut processing of metal mold materials that are used for press molding of a plate material, such as bending, drawing, or trimming, at room temperature, machining of pre-hardened steel having high hardness and machining with high efficiency have been demanded. For cutting tools, more excellent durability is required, and thus a coated cutting tool produced by coating, on the surface of a cutting tool, a hard coating which is made of various ceramics having excellent heat resistance or excellent abrasion resistance, has been applied. For example, a coated cutting tool coated with an AlCrSi series nitride or carbonitride has been proposed, the AlCrSi series nitride or carbonitride being obtained by adding Si to a nitride or a carbonitride, which consists mainly of Al and Cr and is a kind of film that has excellent heat resistance, to thereby enhance the abrasion resistance or heat resistance (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2006-239792, JP-A No. 2005-126736, and JP-A No. 2004-337988).
JP-A No. 2002-337007 indicates that an AlCrSi series nitride having a microstructure, which includes a relatively Si-rich amorphous phase and a relatively Si-poor crystal phase, exhibits an enhanced film hardness and also improved resistance to oxidation, and application of this material results in increased durability of a coated cutting tool.
Further, regarding the conditions for film formation at the time of coating a nitride or a carbonitride, which consists mainly of Al and Cr, research has been conducted on various conditions. For example, to applying a pulse bias voltage at the time of coating a nitride that consists mainly of Al and Cr has been demonstrated (see, for example, JP-A No. 2010-12564, and JP-A No. 2010-284787).